Opportunist Dems Call for War on Iraq

The Village Voice, [23 November 2001]

Capitol Hill's loudest voice for bombing Iraq? That would be Al Gore's
old running mate, Senator Joe Lieberman. The Connecticut pol heads a
caucus of war-hawk Dems. Some of them are eyeing the 2004 presidential
campaign, hoping to use the issue of Iraq to outflank Bush and look
like a bunch of tough guys.

Lieberman argues the U.S. must be unflinching in our
determination to target Iraq as part of the war against
terrorism. Lieberman wants to push Bush into declaring it's U.S.
policy to remove Saddam Hussein.

He is not just a thorn in our sides, he is a threat to American
lives, he said between fundraisers in New Hampshire earlier this
month. If we give him a chance and don't defeat him, he will truly
attack us before long.

Other Dems, backed by the conservative Democratic Leadership Council,
want Bush to expand his war against terrorism. They don't go as far as
Lieberman, but Senator Joseph Biden, chair of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, along with Massachusetts senator John Kerry, a
Vietnam vet, have been calling for a wider effort. Kerry would move to
dump Saddam if Iraq were discovered to be behind chemical and
biological attacks. Senator Robert Torricelli of New Jersey also is
counted among this group.

During House debate, New York's Gary Ackerman argued after the
terrorist attacks that as long as Hussein remained in power, the world
would be at risk. Attacking Iraq depends on whether we have
evidence of its participation on September 11, he told the Voice.
But if there are strong indications that Saddam Hussein had
something to do with it, I would agree a thousand percent, and we
should do whatever we have to do and blow the shit out of them.